Monthly Archives: September 2010

Touch-based directional devices let users feel directions“In-car navigation systems that literally tell drivers where to go are much more convenient and safer than resting a street directory on one’s lap and quickly trying to devise a route on a map at a set of traffic lights. But audio instructions may not always be the best way to impart directional information to hard of hearing drivers or those yakking on a mobile phone – with a hands-free kit I should hope. A new study suggests that devices mounted to a steering wheel that pull the driver’s index fingertips left or right could help motorists drive more safely. The same technology could also be attached to a cane to provide directional cues to blind pedestrians.” Gizmag

Miso Music Turns Your iPad Into A Guitar Teacher, Wins People’s Choice At TC Disrupt“First, you choose a song; Miso has licensed music from Sony/ATV, which gives them rights to include music from The Beatles, Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood, and more. After picking a song, like the Beatles’ Black Bird, you’ll see a series of colorful dots scroll across the screen representing each note you’re supposed to play (this is called tablature, or tab for short, which is a simplified form of music notation often used for guitars). Tabs aren’t anything new. But Miso will actually listen to what you’re playing. Every time you pluck a string, Miso will use its polyphonic note detection to hear what you’ve played — play the right note and the tab appearing on the screen will scroll a bit, which means you can keep playing continuously without having to turn the page. It’s quite slick.”

OneTrueFan Is The Foursquare For Websites“OneTrueFan, which will be available as a browser add-on or as a javascript code that publishers embed on their site, aims to help engage visitors while they are on a website interacting with content. The startup revolves around a game-format that allows you to see who is reading content in the site, compete for the most engagement and encourages you to share content within the service and on social networks.” OneTrueFan Is The Foursquare For Websites

Leave Money In Real Places For“Gifi is a mashup of Foursquare and Venmo. It lets you leave money for people in specific locations, which they can unlock with a Foursquare check-in. Imagine that you check into your favorite coffee shop on Foursquare and moments later you get a text message informing you that a friend has left you $3 at that location, along with a personal message that he wants you to have a latte on him. Or you can leave the gift for more than one friend and whoever checks in first gets to keep the money.” TechCrunch

Real Time Twitter Curation“Proposing to help resolve the need for real-time curation is Curated.by, a soon-to-launch Twitter curation tool that facilitates cataloging and sharing collections of messages on any topic. How it works: create a collection (say, ‘networked objects’) and drag related Tweets into it, or use the service’s new Chrome Extension to curate Tweets right from Twitter web pages. You can then share your collections, embed them on a web page and subscribe to the collections of other users.” PSFK

Romantic Lamp That Splits in Two Glows Brighter When Both Are Switched On“the idea is that one person, let’s call him Fred, switches on his lamp, which actually turns on his girlfriend Frederica’s lamp instead. Frederica then knows Fred is thinking of her, and to reciprocate she can switch on her lamp, which triggers his lamp instead. When both lamps are on—and thus, both sides of the couple are thinking of one another, they glow even brighter.”

View Twitter Through Other People’s Eyes With TwtRoulette“With Twtroulette, users can now visit what industry notables like Mike Arrington, investor Brad Feld, and YouTube’s Hunter Walk see when they open Twitter i.e. what it’s like to follow the people they are following. People can also volunteer their own timelines by adding themselves to the directory. And, like Chatroulette, there’s a random function so one can shuffle through profiles if they’re feeling lucky.” TechCrunch

Robotic arm users find it ‘too easy’“Researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have created a computer-controlled robotic arm designed to help wheelchair-bound people perform actions such as grasping and lifting objects. It has both an automatic mode, in which the computer identifies objects and figures out how to grasp them, and an option for full manual control. When physically-challenged people were selected to try the device out, the researchers were surprised to discover that most of them preferred going manual. It’s all about something called Flow.” Gizmag